Ref. Tiele 296/ 297. The rare first edition, Cat. NHSM and Gay both later editions and translations. The first large general description of the African continent. The work is based on the early accounts of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers, the English works by Purchass and Jarrick, the journals and descriptions of Dutch navigators like Van Noort, Van Neck, Linschoten, Spilbergen, but especially on unpublished reports and eye-witness accounts of Dutch merchants, visitors and soldiers. The work is famous for its splendid detailed maps and plates, i.a. engraved after drawings by Reinier Noomsz (Zeeman)